Question: What’s the best thing the president and Congress can do at this point to deal either with the influx of immigrant children coming across the U.S southern border or in regards to overall immigration reform?

• Secure the border first. Only then can you think about reform. Obama should send a strong public message: “People who enter illegally will be returned.” Let local law enforcement agencies enforce immigration laws, let Border Patrol agents have access to federal lands, and send the National Guard to the border.

Edward Priest

Battle Ground

• The interests of these children must come first, especially the unaccompanied ones. Efforts should be made to place them with relatives or otherwise care for them. Their parents should be contacted, if possible. No child should be involuntarily deported. It is a basic question of morality.

Frank Rosenthal

West Lafayette

• If your ceiling is ruined from a leaky roof, you don’t repair the ceiling when it’s raining. First, repair the roof. Therefore, first secure the borders. Then, deport the undocumented immigrants. Finally, fix the legal migration process. And no amnesty. Period.

Jim Kalish

Lafayette

• Enforce the laws that are on the books. All of them have sworn to uphold them. The last four presidents have failed in this, so it is not a Democrat or Republican issue. It is direct result of a government that refuses to abide by the oath they took.

E. Lloyd Wells

Lafayette

• Congress, use your brains. Provide a path to citizenship for law-abiding immigrants, especially their children. Make it easier for employers to identify and hire legal immigrants. Integration, not isolation, is the best policy. And please, stop pandering to people’s xenophobic, racist fears.

Frank Arnold

Lafayette

• Pick up the phone and call the Department of Defense to send 1,000 National Guard units to the border, move the Border Patrol stations closer to the border instead of 50 miles away, pass funding for 3,000 more permanent border agents, drone surveillance and strategic fencing.

Mike Fogleman

West Lafayette

• If the Republicans in Congress would actually work with the president, with some semblance of honesty and integrity, issues like this could be solved. A comprehensive immigration reform bill must be a high priority. This bill should provide funding and policies for the agencies who deal with legal immigration to streamline and speed the process of earning legal status for prospective immigrants.

David Hovde and Marj Rush Hovde

Mulberry

• If it was easier for people to come over legally, then they would be less likely to come over illegally. I encourage everyone to visit the immigration website and read the requirements to immigrate here from Mexico. I wouldn’t meet the requirements if I wasn’t born here. Would you?

Joshua Brant

Lafayette

• President Obama is doing what he can given current laws and funding. Congress needs to get moving on the legislation passed by the Senate. If the bill needs fixing, fix it, and then get it passed. House Speaker John Boehner should forget about suing the president and put his effort into doing his job.

Jo Ann Mullen

Lafayette

• First, we have to close our borders. Then we need to return all the illegal people to their own countries, using the planes and funds that are being used to drop them off all over our country. The U.S. just cannot tolerate this entering our country unchecked. Among a wealth of problems, the health of our country is at stake. Wake up, America.

Mona Clouse

Crawfordsville

• I don’t know the answer, but I know that the teacher said to love your neighbor, and we are required to take care of his children and to love them as our own.

Furman A. Powell

Lafayette

• Mobilize as many National Guard troops as possible to create a barrier to stop the influx at the border. We can’t take care of our own citizens much less take on the responsibility for thousands of others. Expedite the return to their home countries. Reform immigration laws.

Carl V. Covely, Jr.

Sheffield Township

• Send them back till they come in a legal fashion.

Carolyn Foust

Lafayette

• The best thing Obama can do is follow the U.S. Constitution by faithfully executing the laws of the U.S. government. No more, no less.

Nate Pfeiffer

Wabash Township

• Better question: Kids are unlikely to organize mass border crossings from several countries, so who is creating this publicity stunt?

David B. Dobbin

West Lafayette

• Don’t laugh, but this a problem ideally solved by the United Nations. They could identify the problems behind mass exoduses and then apply the processes necessary to make the target countries livable, including but not restricted to effective police forces, stable governments, and not open to exploitation by drug lords and others who might exploit the country for their own profit. Set it up, and I’ll vote for it.

Ed Posey

West Lafayette

• Start by enforcing the laws that we have. Next, we need to secure the border even if that means building an impassable fence. We waste millions on many worthless pork barrel projects, so how about spending whatever it takes on a secure border.

Terry Smith

Shadeland

• The best thing? Deal with them with the utmost humanity; if that takes money, so be it. They’re children (in case you’ve forgotten).

Gale Charlotte

West Lafayette

• First, secure the border and then we will discuss “comprehensive immigration reform.” First things first.

Danny L. McDaniel

Lafayette

• We have to close the door, simple as that. It’s not a matter of compassion; it’s a matter of U.S. basic survival. We can’t save the whole world. This president has us on the verge of bankruptcy as it is.

• They aren’t immigrants. They are illegal. Round them all up and send them back immediately. Tattoo them and those caught a second time are sent back by parachute to a different country. Third time caught is the death penalty.

Mark Rumps

Lafayette

• Simple — enforce the laws that are currently on the books. Follow the Constitution. Legislative branch writes laws and the executive branch enforces them.

Daniel Huff

Lafayette

• It’s past time for Obama and Congress to work out a meaningful immigration policy that will halt the undocumented immigrants flooding our shores. The illegals are bleeding the country dry of our valuable resources and placing the American citizens into a situation that will soon be irreversible. We are pouring our taxpayers money into an abyss that keeps deepening.

Jim Yeoman

Lafayette

• Phase out the welfare state, and instead allow churches and charities to reclaim the role of charity in our society. You can’t have welfare and open borders at the same time. Welfare entitlements are a magnet for illegal immigration.

John Pickerill

Crawfordsville

• Congress should not appropriate more than $2 billion to house and take care of any illegal immigrants. Deport as many and as fast as possible. This goes for all illegals. As a picture in the J&C depicted, any illegal that burns and tramples our flag should be put in prison then deported. Use the money not spent on them to hire more border agents to secure the border.

Jon Sexson

Lafayette

• Activate the National Guard and instantly close the border. Use the aid we give to the offending nations to fly their people back home. Maybe even “first class.” Then if there is any left, continue their payments unless they allow it to continue. “Enough” is way too much.

Jack Lahrman

Sheffield Township

• The president needs to immediately move to totally secure the border. The children need to be returned to the country they came from. We jail parents here who leave their children stranded.

Shelby Branstetter

Lafayette

• This has been going on for years, and Congress and the Senate have done nothing. It has now become national problem, the Senate passed a reform bill, but the Republican House has refused to even look at it even in piecemeal. So now they will have to act and blame each other.

Dennis Donoho

Sedalia

• Get them out of the country. What do you think is next? Gee, all of a sudden we have a lot of parents south of the border, and they want to come and be with their “illegal” kids, and they have lots of dead relatives who can vote Democratic.

Thomas W. Anderson

Lafayette

• Take 1 percent of their salary the first year, 2 percent the second year, 3 percent the third, etc., until the problem is solved. It won’t take long.

James Derringer

Lafayette

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